New 'Castle Rock' trailer invites us to visit Hulu's sinister Stephen King-inspired series

If you thought 2017 was the year of Stephen King adaptations — thanks to IT and The Dark Tower at the multiplexes, and Gerald’s Game and 1922 on Netflix — just wait until summer, when Hulu delivers an original series inspired by, and tying together elements from, various novels written by the acclaimed author. Castle Rock thus has the potential to be the best of all King worlds, and expectations are only going to escalate further now that the upcoming show has debuted its highly anticipated Super Bowl ad a few days before the big game.

Produced by J.J. Abrams, Castle Rock will take place in the town of its title, which King’s “constant readers” will recognize as the setting for The Dead Zone, Cujo, The Dark Half, Needful Things, and many more macabre tales. How those stories — or others set in neighboring fictional King towns like Derry (home of IT, Insomnia, and Dreamcatcher) — will factor into Hulu’s show is, for the present moment, unknown. Certainly, the trailer above doesn’t reveal much in terms of details (or include any outright Easter-egg homages), aside from the fact that the story will focus on André Holland’s return to Castle Rock and that both Shawshank prison and creepy masks will factor into the proceedings — as will a freaked-out Sissy Spacek, who warns someone that “It’s happening!”

With a cast that includes not only the tremendous Spacek and Holland but also Melanie Lynskey, Scott Glenn, Terry O’Quinn, and Bill Skarsgård (aka IT’s horrifying Pennywise the Dancing Clown), Castle Rock is set to be the long-form Stephen King adaptation fans have always craved, one that explores the author’s favorite themes while (per the studio) “brushing up against” some of his most famous works.